A Day in Los Angeles with my new 7D and other thoughts

jsauce

Active member
Hey guys. take a look at some test shooting I did while obsessively carrying this thing around with me everywhere I go for the last few days.
on my site, www.houseblendmedia.com, just click "teasers and tests"
i find my iweb site does much better compression than vimeo but if you find it slow loading, its also on vimeo: www.vimeo.com/6904072

I shot all handheld (my tripod is being rented out) and used only custom settings (though i'd love it if people could suggest better settings re saturation/sharpenss/etc)
At this point I've only bough the EFS 17-55m 2.8 canon zoom. its a great all around lense and i'm liking it, but im itching for a a few primes and a long zoom.

in general i LOVE this camera. its got amazing potential. really my only concern (thats not fixable---as sound, mounts,rigs, etc all are) is COLOR.
im just not getting the overall pop, and color quality I would automatically see on my hvx for example. is it just me??? i also own an hvx200 and the letus. id love to get rid of them both and make this my main rig, but im hesitant.

i want to be proven wrong though. and i may be. im interested to see different lenses and different color settings on this bad boy.

excited about the future.
josh
 
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I haven't gotten mine yet, but I thought the color looked pretty good. If you want more of a pop, try upping the saturation. Is there a "cine" gamma setting or LUT that you can choose?
 
i didn't see a cinegama setting but that would be great. i will try upping the saturation and lowering the contrast/sharpness. the colors definitely look a lot better on my site than they do on vimeo.
 
Very nice! I assume that was shot with IS on, right? Any tips for some of that rock solid handheld?
 
Very cool! I enjoyed the sports sections - having the ability to slow things down like that is so nice.

If they could just fix the aliasing problem, I would be so so happy!
 
Your footage is awesome definitely high on my list of best yet. You said you did minor color correction? Can you go into a little detail on this. The colors may not have popped but I thought they looked amazing.
 
Color seems good to me all over. Liked your compositions too.
This camera has a lot of potential, nothing comes close for this price level.
 
awesome vid!

awesome vid!

Jsauce,

Did you have any overheating issues while making this bad boy? I think that is the only thing that is keeping me from pulling the trigger on this thing.

What if I am doing some interview that is like 30 mins in length and the camera keeps overheating? (btw I am aware of the 12min max continuous shooting time).

-Budha
 
thanks so much for all the kind words guys--- especially you bellavitch!

as far as getting good handheld stuff, I did use the IS.
but what i think actually helped the most was overcranking, keeping the camera close to my chest and also maybe the fact that im using a pretty heavy lens.

one thing i noticed (or is just me) the image/picture quality is substantially better in the full rez 24p mode versus the 60p mode. granted the 24p mode is simply bigger but the colors/image quality also looked better.
 
Your footage is awesome definitely high on my list of best yet. You said you did minor color correction? Can you go into a little detail on this. The colors may not have popped but I thought they looked amazing.


color correction wise, i used 3 way color corrector in FCP and in certain shots added the magic bullet misfire vignette.
 
Can definitely see the aliasing at 1:10 on the rails with the guy running. The basketball court is horrible at 1:20 - but then is fine in the next shot. Just gotta figure out whats the best shots to avoid the AA.
 
are you sure thats not just vimeo? i don't see anything on the guy running. the only slight problem i saw were the white lines of the court buzzing in the first basketball shot.
 
funny beacuse a lot of friends keep asking me this. I've had zero problems with it and i've been shooting in fairly hot weather here in LA. that said, i doubt this is the best camera for doc style 30 min interviews.

Jsauce,

Did you have any overheating issues while making this bad boy? I think that is the only thing that is keeping me from pulling the trigger on this thing.

What if I am doing some interview that is like 30 mins in length and the camera keeps overheating? (btw I am aware of the 12min max continuous shooting time).

-Budha
 
Jsauce,

Yeah they would be shorter type of interviews that get to the point. I specialize in web video/media so the stuff would be almost scripted etc. I'm just saying what happens if I do do a long interview one day, I know I'd have the 12 min recording length limit, but I still think it would be able to do a longer interview?
 
Absolutely gorgeous. I thought the colours looked exquisite. Especially the Quicktime on your own site (H264?). And considering it was your first few days with the camera I have to say I'm very impressed.

On a settings note, was this all shot on manual (including manual focus)? What general shutter speed, etc. And 24P? And would it be possible to say how you processed the footage in and out? Phew...

Of course, ignore all these questions if you're busy. Either way, a superb beginning. Thank you.

*Just read back and seen that you've answered some of these questions.
 
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Holy cow, that is some very impressive footage. Yeah, the color is better on the .mov on your site than on the Vimo clip. I think they look fine also, and are actually a tad bit saturated for my tastes. That is a personal thang though.

I have not been following the threads on these new DSLR cams much and have just stumbled into the stuff showing up from the 7D. I have been impressed with what I have seen.

I was just wondering if you kept track of ISO/ASA settings, F/T stop settings, and light levels (key light footcandles) you were working with for each shot? I am especially interested the basketball sequence at the end. What ISO/ASA settings were you at? What F/T stop were you shooting at and did you document the light level of the available light? Also, does this camera have any shutter angle adjustment?
 
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